Henry's homework nightmare
by lets get xiggy with it
Summary: Ruby offers to help her son with his homework. What could possibly go wrong? One shot.


**This idea came to me the other night and amused me so much that I just had to share it with you all :) Much like my story Once Upon An AU this is set in an AU in which Ruby is Henry's other mom and has been married to Regina since the curse began. As usual Reviews and messages are always welcome and very much appreciated :)**

* * *

'Hey champ shouldn't you be doing your homework?' Ruby asked her son with a slight smile on her face. Bunking off work to play video games was certainly something she could relate to, not that she would ever admit this to her wife Regina of course.

The brunette boy paused his game, 'I got kinda stuck so I gave up'. He gave her a cheeky smile, 'besides mom shouldn't you be at work?'

 _Damn outfoxed by my own son_.

'Erm got sent home early you know half day and all that?'

'Mom you're the boss, you literally sent yourself home didn't you?' Henry accused his tone was one of pure amusement.

It never ceased to amaze the Sheriff how much like Regina Henry was, they even had the same look of frustration and amusement when confronted with her less than adult decisions. It was kinda spooky not to mention unfair as they often ganged up on her.

'Might have...' Ruby muttered sounding very much like a chastised child.

'You should be more responsible it's not really a very good example to set'

The kid kinda had a point... wait a minute when did this become about her? She was the parent here and Henry was the one who hadn't done his homework. Damn the kid was good. He'd make a brilliant politician someday...

'Hey mister don't try and change the subject here we're talking about your lack of homework doing!'

'Yeah but that's totally due to the work ethic example of my wonderful mother?' The cheeky grin was back and Ruby found it took all of her self control not to crack up laughing.

'Nice try'

Man Ruby hated having to play the tough parent, especially when the game Henry was playing looked kinda fun, but Regina was working late tonight which meant Ruby herself would be in trouble if Henry went to bed without finishing his schoolwork. As much as she loved her son there was no way in hell she was taking that lecture for him. Well there was only one thing for it.

'Hey we'll both be in trouble if it's not done by the time your mother gets home so why don't I take a look at it with you?'

Henry's smile grew brighter. 'Really? Thanks!'

 _Aww yeah easy mom points!_

Henry got up and left the room presumably to fetch his schoolbag. Ruby mentally high fived herself on her parenting ability. Normally it was Regina that stepped in to help their son when he got stuck with homework but this time she was totally gonna rock it! So really it was entirely justifiable that she had taken a half day from work, clearly the universe had just wished it so. One look at Henry's homework assignment however put Ruby in a different frame of mind entirely; the universe was an asshole.

* * *

Regina could not wait to get home. To say it had been a long day would be one hell of an understatement. With Christmas fast approaching she had spent hours reading through proposals for decorations and arrangements over where they should get the towns tree and who could be trusted to decorate it etc. It wouldn't have been so bad but this was on top of dealing with her usual mountain of paperwork and trying to settle a land dispute between the dwarves and a very unhappy farmer; it would seem the dwarves had managed to tunnel under and subsequently destroy one of the farmers crop fields. Leroy's less than apologetic attitude had done little to help the situation.

Now however it was well and truly home time. Sliding into her car and beginning the relatively short journey home Regina couldn't help but smile. Just the thought of Henry and Ruby waiting for her to get back lifted her spirits and made everything else seem so insignificant. Her family was everything to her. Pulling into the driveway the former queen found herself wondering what her wife and son could be up to, it was quiet. Too much so in fact which when concerning those two was damn right suspicious. Oh god what had they done?

Letting herself into the house with as little noise as possible Regina quickly discovered the reason for the silence. They were both fast asleep. She took a moment to enjoy the scene before her. Ruby was wedged into the corner of the sofa hand lazily clinging to a bowl that had once housed popcorn, Regina knew this as the former contents were now covering her living room floor seemingly haven fallen out soon after Ruby had lost conciousness. Henry was cuddled into his mom's side a blanket wrapped around his legs still holding onto a small handful of popcorn that hadn't quite made it to his mouth in time. Regina sighed softly even whilst asleep the pair had managed to destroy her living room. It was a good job they were so damn cute!

Regina loudly cleared her throat to wake them. 'Well what do we have here?'

Ruby jolted awake which in turn startled Henry who tried to get up but found himself twisted in the blanket. After trying unsucessfully to free himself he gave up and snuggled back into Ruby's lap. Regina found herself thinking it was the most adorable thing she had ever seen.

'Hey sweetie' Ruby yawned rubbing her eyes, 'Guess we must have fallen asleep huh?'

'No kidding, i'm assuming the popcorn disaster happened shortly after?'

Ruby looked confused for a moment before realising she was still holding the empty bowl. A quick look around the living room soon had her looking rather sheepish.

'Whoops! Sorry i'll clean it up in a minute'

'It's okay' the older woman sighed and with a wave of her hand magically removed the offending snack food. 'What caused impromptu movie night anyway?'

'Henry's homework' Ruby stretched still not fully awake.

'His homework was to watch movies with you?'

'Erm not exactly...'

Before Ruby could think of an excuse Henry cut in, 'It was too hard so we gave up'

'Excuse me?' Regina could not believe what she was hearing. It was true that she expected that sort of thing from her wife but her son usually had a better work ethic than that. Not to mention they both knew her well enough to know that she would be far from impressed at this decision.

'Hey we didn't flunk out completely we watched totally related films!' Ruby protested crossing her arms like a petulant teenager.

'Mom we watched Snow White and the seven dwarves, Peter Pan and planned on watching Beauty and the beast but fell asleep' Henry objected from his spot on her leg.

'Whose side are you on kid!?'

Regina sighed sometimes it felt like she actually had two children to contend with. She let them bicker back and forth for another minute or two before clapping her hands together to get their attention.

'Okay what was the assignment?'

'I had to write out my family tree' Henry answered her finally sitting upright. 'Here i'll show you how far I got'

'So really the movies were totally related' Ruby huffed.

Regina decided to let the comment go as her son came back to her with a brightly coloured piece of card. She studied it for a moment before realising exactly why the pair had given up on their endeavour.

'Oh wow it kinda is crazy when you see it written out like this...' Regina whispered slightly in awe of the contents.

'Yeah, for example did you know that because of you and grandma i'm actually my mom's uncle?' Henry asked her sounding bewildered.

'And that that makes you his mom and his great grandma not to mention making Snow his sister and his grandma' Ruby interjected with a smirk.

'Oh and baby Neal, he's not only my uncle but i'm his uncle at the same time!'

'To be fair that one was my personal favourite and these are all before we get into adding the pirate in as his step dad and his step grandad...'

'It's weird when saying that Peter Pan is your great grandad is one of the most normal claims I can make of all this', Henry finished gesturing at the confusing piece of card in front of him.

Regina had to agree with him. She had known that their family had maybe overlapped a little in places but seeing it all written down like this was something else. Talk about a royal nightmare. Well when faced with the evidence there really was only one thing she could do.

'Did you say we were watching Beauty and the beast next?'


End file.
